Why IB Model for High School Expansion?

Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School (YSCP) has been providing excellent education Kindergarten through 8th grade. In order to extend the same excellent opportunities to Kindergarten through 12th grade we chose International Baccalaureate (IB) as our model for the following main reasons:

YSCP’s existing program and mission aligns very well with IB

No other schools in the area offer IB program

The IB program well suits the transient communities like State College as it offers a continuum of international education

Only 8 schools offer MYP and 19 offer DP among all schools (572 middle and 619 public high schools) in PA

Only 9 charter schools offer MYP and 14 offer DP out of 6440 charter schools in the USA

We visited the only DP offering charter school (which also offers MYP) in PA

We planned for a visit for the other charter school that offers MYP

We have been studying and training for IB for the last three years

Our teachers in middle school are trained in MYP

We are a MYP candidate school

We have plans to submit our application in April 2016

We hope to schedule our authorization visit in the Fall of 2016

IB programs are unique because IB

encourages students to think critically and challenge what they are told

is independent of governments and national systems, and therefore able to incorporate best practice from a range of international frameworks and curricula

encourages students to consider both their local and international environment

IB is very well aligned with Common Core, as a matter of fact developers of Common Core studied IB programs and integrated IB philosophies and approaches to Common Core

Best practice from a range of curricula: Unlike a national/state curriculum, IB programs reflect the best practice of a range of different educational frameworks and curricula. It encourages students to be internationally-minded and to think beyond their immediate environment.

Students think about how they learn best: Through IB programmes, IB students “learn how to learn”, studying IB’s unique theory of knowledge (TOK) course. They are encouraged to try different approaches to learning and to take responsibility for their own educational progress.

IB programs help IB students:

ask challenging questions

think critically

develop research skills proven to help them in higher education.

IB students are provided unique education because they will:

be encouraged to think independently and drive their own learning

take part in programs of education that can lead them to some of the highest ranking universities around the world

become more culturally aware, through the development of world languages

be able to engage with people in an increasingly globalized, rapidly changing world

will be required to do community service projects.

IB students often perform better: IB World School students develop strong academic, social and emotional characteristics. They are also likely to perform well academically – often better than students in other programs.

These are some of the reasons why we considered IB programs as our model for our high school expansion.

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